


Pretty in Pink

by Fullmetalcarer



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Homophobic Language, M/M, Pink - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-20 10:52:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16135739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fullmetalcarer/pseuds/Fullmetalcarer
Summary: Charles has always loved pink, but if you're a boy that's NOT ALLOWED.





	Pretty in Pink

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 16 of 'Man and Boy' nearly killed me so I'm posting this to give myself a break.

Charles is five. He knows to go to daddy for hugs and kisses because mummy doesn't like him messing up her pretty clothes. He's in the sitting room playing with his sister's stuffed toys. He likes toy cars and trucks and robots but he likes cuddly toys best of all. They're so soft and squidgy. The white polar bear, the black and white panda, the purple dragon, the green octopus and the pink lamb (his favourite) are having tea in front of the crackling fire. He takes Lambie in his arms and hugs him tight.

"I love you, Lambie."

The door opens behind him. He looks round. It's his mother. A familiar expression crosses her face.

"What's the matter with you, Charles? You're a boy. You should play with boys' toys. Those things are Raven's. They're girls' toys. Christ, you're such a disappointment."

She snatches Lambie from his hands and throws him into the fire. Charles screams. Lambie burns. The smell is terrible.

Charles is eleven. His father is dead. He only has Raven to go to for hugs and kisses now and he knows boys aren't supposed to like hugs and kisses, but he does. Mummy is going to marry Kurt Marko. Charles doesn't like Kurt. He's big and loud. He doesn't think Kurt likes him. Kurt takes him shopping so he can buy Charles a bicycle. Mummy says it's so they can 'bond', whatever that means.

Charles wanders round the bike shop while Kurt boasts to the bike shop man about what a great cyclist he was when he was young. Charles stops, transfixed. The bike is pink, a sort of glittery pink, like it's sprinkled with stardust. It has silver tassels dangling from the handles and purple butterflies all over the frame. It's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen.

"I want this one,' he says, wheeling it over to Kurt and the bike shop man.

"That's a girls' bike, you idiot," says Kurt. "Can't you see that? It's pink for fuck's sake, pink with fucking butterflies. Are you a girl, Charles? Are you a girly girl? Shall we call you Charlotte?"

He and the bike shop man laugh at Charles. Charles gets a blue bike, dark blue. It doesn't have tassels and it certainly doesn't have butterflies.

Charles is fourteen. He's going to the school dance. He puts on his black jeans. He can't chose which shirt to wear, white or pink. The pink suits his complexion better. He buttons it up.

"You look great," says Raven. "Love the shirt. Have fun."

"Thanks sis, I will."

The driver drops him off outside the school gym. Inside it's decorated in black and silver. The lights are dim and the glitter-ball is scattering diamonds over walls and floor and ceiling. Charles spots Hank, Alex and Sean and fights his way through the dancers to them. Hank is a huge nerd, so it's no surprise Charles is friends with him. Quite how he ended up friends with Alex and Sean he doesn't know. Alex is constantly getting into fights and hovering on the verge of expulsion. Sean is an epic stoner.

"Whoa, Xavier, looking fine," says Alex.

Alex is openly gay and no one gives him shit about it unless they want to get the crap beaten out of them.

"Nice shirt. Pink is, like, the most nurturing colour and you are one nurturing dude, Charles," mumbles Sean.

"Hi," says Hank and gives an awkward wave.

Hank is deeply in the closet and frantically suppressing a massive crush on Alex.

"Xavier, we all know you're a fag, you don't need to advertise it with that shirt," yells Shaw.

"Why don't you fuck off and die?" snarls Alex.

Shaw and his acolytes back off because Alex fights like a madman, not caring if he gets hurt so long as he can damage the opposition.

Charles has a good evening. He drinks doctored punch and dances with his friends, including Moira who thought they were going out at one point before she realised Charles was gay. Charles is spinning round the dance floor, feeling a little bit drunk and a lot happy when he is doused in cold, viscous liquid. It's paint, pink paint.

"Since you like pink so much you little faggot," laughs Shaw.

Teachers head towards them and Shaw and his cronies race off. Charles stands there, soaked and dripping, face as pink as the paint. His friends don't laugh, they take him to the bathroom and help him clean up, but lots of other people do. Their laughter rings in his ears, cold and mocking.

Charles is eighteen. He's at college. He loves kids and he wants to be a teacher. He starts experimenting with clothes. He wears a pink tee. He gets some cerise pants. He wears them separately at first, then combines them. Nobody seems to notice and if they do, they're complimentary. He wears pink scarves and pink beads and for the first time in his life he feels like himself. He branches out into orange. It is not a success.

"Promise me you won't wear orange again," shudders Emma, who only ever wears white. "You were born to wear pink, but not orange, never orange. You look like an extra in The Walking Dead or one of the ugly girls from Orange is the New Black."

Charles is twenty one. He's at Pride. He's wearing a pink feather boa, pink cut-off tee, pink shorty-shorts, pink knee high socks and pink converse. Pink eyeshadow and pink lip gloss too. He's up on the college float, dancing round a pink pole, grinding his hips and shaking his ass.

A huge, hairy man, wearing not much more than some black leather straps, climbs up onto the float.

"You look amazing. Pink really suits you and you dance real good. Name's Logan. Fancy getting together after the parade is over?"

Later, when Charles has been fucked in every possible position and some he previously thought were impossible, Logan says to him:

"You're so soft kid and I mean that in a good way. Don't let the world make you hard. Stay soft. Stay pink."

Charles is twenty five. The accident put a bit of a crimp in his plans, but now he's exactly where he wants to be; teaching elementary school. They're having a 'Fun Day'. There are games, creative activities and stuff like a mini zip wire for the more adventurous. Charles wheels over to the face painting.

Pietro Maximoff-Lehnsherr is at the head of the queue, with his twin sister, Wanda, close behind. Pietro's hair is so blond it looks silver. Wanda has ferociously red hair. They're in Charles' class because he gets all the 'problem' kids. The fact that they're labelled as 'problems' incenses Charles. Sure, Pietro is hyperactive, but Charles knows all sorts of harmless ways for him to burn off that surplus energy and allow him to concentrate. And, yes, Wanda is a tad chaotic and tends to break everything she touches, but she's highly intelligent and super protective of her brother. Charles doesn't have favourites, but if he did, the twins would be his.

"I want butterflies," says Pietro to Kitty, the young woman doing the face painting.

"Say please," prompts Wanda.

"Butterflies please."

Kitty smiles and reaches for her brush.

"Oh, you don't want butterflies," says the woman who's next in the queue.

She's holding the hand of a little girl dressed entirely in pink. Pietro and Wanda turn to stare at her.

"Yes I do," says Pietro.

"But butterflies are for girls," says the woman. "Why don't you get a skeleton or a robot or a tiger? They're the kind of things boys have."

Pietro's face puckers.

"Excuse me, are you this young man's mother?" asks Charles, knowing full well she's not. Pietro and Wanda live with their father, who Charles has yet to meet.

"Er, no."

"Then I suggest you stop interfering and let Pietro get what he wants."

"But he doesn't want people to think he's a - "

Charles adjust his scarf so the rainbow badge is clearly visible. The woman purses her lips, but says no more. You look bad arguing with a guy in a wheelchair.

"Thank you, Mr Charles," say Pietro, face bright again.

Wanda sticks out her tongue at the woman, which Charles pretends not to see.

"I want pink butterflies please."

The woman looks like she's going to say something, probably going to suggest blue because that's a 'boy's' colour, but Charles glares at her so fiercely she shuts her mouth like a trap. 

Kitty paints the biggest, pinkest butterfly on Pietro's face that you've ever seen. She adds some silver sparkles too.

"Please can I have a skellington, no, skeleton," says Wanda.

Kitty turns her sweet little face into a fearsome skull.

"I'm the White Skull and I kill narzies," proclaims Wanda.

Well, as far as Charles is concerned, it's quite as admirable an ambition as wanting to be a ballerina.

"I'm the Pink Butterfly and I make everything rainbows," cries Pietro.

"Except narzies," says Wanda.

"Except nasties," agrees Pietro.

They race off, hand in hand.

"Can I get a skellington too?" asks the tiny pink child.

Her mother looks distraught.

Charles has a lovely day. It's getting late, well, late for elementary school children, and people are starting to drift away. Charles bends to pick up someone's teddy bear. He'll put it in the school lost and found. No doubt it will be retrieved by its relieved owner. A shadow falls over him. Charles looks up, then further up. A man is looming over him. He's dressed all in black, black leather jacket and big, black biker boots, and his devastating handsomeness is offset by his stern expression.

"Are you the guy that insisted my son get that butterfly on his face?"

Charles braces himself for a rant about 'how dare you make my son look like a sissy'.

"Yes," he says defiantly.

Mr Lehnsherr's face transforms. His smile is too wide and do human beings actually have that many teeth but, god, it's dazzling. He reaches down and takes one of Charles' hands in both of his. His fingers are long and bony and warm

"Thank you so much. I'm so fucking tired of interfering shit-heads telling my boy he can't like pink and butterflies and My Little Pony and Barbie. I mean, where the fuck do people get off gendering little kids like that? Christ, sorry about the swearing. Oh shit, I said Christ."

Charles grins.

"I'm a born again atheist, so no problem there, and I'll tell you a secret, I say 'fuck' too, though not in front of the kids. As for pink, I'm pretty fond of it myself."

Charles is wearing a fluffy, pink jumper, cherry red skinnies and has accessorised with a pink and silver silk scarf.

"I can see that," says Mr L. "Lovely sweater by the way. It looks so soft I want to rub my hands all over it."

His high cheekbones flush with colour as he realises what he's said. He releases Charles' hands, reluctantly, Charles thinks.

"Feel free," says Charles.

They both laugh. He has a deep, raucous laugh, while Charles appears to be doing some kind of girlish, giggling thing. Mr L doesn't seem put off.

"I'm Erik Lehnsherr."

"Charles Xavier."

"Ah, I thought your real name couldn't possibly be Professor X."

"Professor X?"

"That's what the kids call you. 'Professor' because you're so smart and 'X' because they struggle with your name."

"Professor X. I like it. I sound like some sort of superhero." Charles licks his lips and notices with satisfaction how eagerly Erik's eyes follow the movement. "You could be my nemesis."

Erik grins his sharky grin.

"Guess I need a name then. Hmm, part of my job involves investigating the magnetic properties of metals so I could be 'Magneto'."

"Magneto. Rolls off the tongue nicely."

Charles emphasises 'tongue' slightly and Erik taps his bottom lip with his thumb.

A couple of tiny whirlwinds race up and attach themselves to Erik's legs.

"Papa, Papa, you said we could go get ice-cream. Please can we go now coz I'm starving hungry," pleads Pietro.

"Say hello to Mr Charles," scolds Wanda.

"Hello, Mr Charles. Can we get ice-cream now, Papa, please, Papa, please?"

"Okay. Would you guys like Mr Charles to come too?"

A chorus of "Yes, yes, please come, Mr Charles, please."

"How can I say no?"

Cheering and general rejoicing.

"Very clever, Erik. I couldn't possible turn down two adorable kids."

"I'm hoping you won't be able to turn down one not so adorable adult," says Erik with a dirty little smirk.

Turns out Charles can't.


End file.
